Duane Cunningham

Researchers At MIT Discover SECRETS About YOUR Morals!

Duane Cunningham — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 05:18:57 +0000

People’s moral judgment can be altered by disrupting part of the brain, a study shows.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) disrupted activity in the right temporo-parietal junction, or TPJ, which is above and behind the right ear and is usually highly active when we think about what we believe the outcome of a particular act will be.

The researchers disrupted the TPJ by inducing a current in the brain using a magnetic field applied to the scalp and got study participants to read a series of scenarios posing moral conundrums.

In one scenario, a person called Grace and her friend are taking a tour of a chemical plant when Grace stops at the coffee machine.

Grace’s friend asks her to get her a coffee with sugar.

A container by the coffee machine is marked ‘toxic’ but contains plain old sugar – but Grace doesn’t know that.

She believes the white powder in the container is toxic but puts it in her friend’s coffee anyway. Her friend is unharmed because the substance was sugar.

Participants in the study were asked to judge on a scale of one to seven, with one being ‘absolutely forbidden’ and seven ‘absolutely permissible,’ if they thought what Grace and other protagonists in other scenarios did was morally acceptable.

Two experiments were conducted: during one, participants were asked to judge the scenarios’ characters after having magnetic pulses sent to their TPJs for 25 minutes, and in the other they passed judgment while undergoing very short bursts of magnetic interference.

In both experiments, disrupting normal neural activity in the right TPJ switched off the part of people’s moral judgment mechanism that looks at the protagonists’ beliefs.

When the right TPJ was disrupted, participants were more likely to judge, as morally permissible failed attempts to harm another person than were control participants whose right TPJs were not tinkered with.

‘When activity in the right TPJ is disrupted, participants’ moral judgments shift toward a ‘no harm, no foul’ mentality,’ even though the participants should have given characters like Grace a mark in the forbidden range because they believed their actions would cause harm, the study says.

Welcome To OUR World!

Duane Cunningham — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:56:35 +0000

]]>

Your Mission In Life Is….

Duane Cunningham — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:59:26 +0000

Your mission in life is not to change the world. Your mission is to change yourself! There are no ‘outside’ solutions, only ‘inside’ solutions!

EVERY person can change the world by changing who they are and what they bring to the world!

Everyone has been richly endowed with the power to change yourself!

If you stubbornly resist change, you will live a single, uneventful life!

No matter how serene it may be.

If you welcome change, you will live many lives – all equally rewarding!

All things change, except the fact of changing.

People who don’t change – who refuse to recognize change – who think so small they can’t change – have provided the world with a LOT of statistics and very little else!!

Change is a compelling motivation to create something new, to reach for the unreachable, no matter how elusive it may seem!

Those who seek constructive change have hungry minds.

And whenever their hunger is strongest, the world improves a little!

Never fear nor resist change…

Cultivate it!

Seek it out!

Day by day, hour by hour, concentrate on being who you want to be!

You and I, ALL of us, live and work in a world largely of our own making.

And every aspect of our separate worlds reflect our individual fears, attitudes, thoughts and habits.

The only way you can change your world is to change your mind!

Seek it out we must

Grow we must – and the dynamic of human growth is….

CHANGE!

Desire: How Wimpy And Weak Are You!

Duane Cunningham — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:43:06 +0000

Every ‘disaster’ in your life is not so much a disaster, as a situation waiting for you to change your mind about it!

Desire makes winners in every walk of life!

The degree of success you achieve depends on the amount of sincere desire you have!

The strength of genuine desire makes you go through a challenge when other people go around it.

Desire arms you with the courage to say to yourself,

“Im Great! And Becoming Supreme Ruler Of The Universe!!” (My personal favorite!)

Less successful people say,

“I’m not as bad as a lot of other people!” (How weak and wimpy can you get!!)

Desire develops and engenders respect for those in authority, a lack of desire breeds resentment!

Desire fosters the sense of 100% responsibility.

Lack of desire is expressed in, “I only work here!”

The searing flame of active desire carries with it the courage of your deepest convictions.

You can stand up and be counted for the things that matter!!

Every great religion, philosophy, invention or work of art had its creative beginning in the mind of one with a burning desire!

Persistence-Not Stupidity

Duane Cunningham — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:48:20 +0000

There’s something to be said – although cautiously – for persistence

There was a time in my life when I put persistence on a much more exalted pedestal than I do now.

In fact I talked about it constantly without caveat!

There is a fine line between essential, admirable persistence and stubborn, costly stupidity!

All astute entrepreneurs and marketers learn and welcome the swift sword.

To find out what won’t work as quickly and cheaply as possible, then on to the next experiment!

In concert, though, if they find or figure out something that shows promise, they have bulldog tenacity and tremendous patience in tinkering, tweaking, testing, and tinkering some more to get it fully functional.

They are very resistant to other’s discouraging opinions!

Also don’t ever mistake genius for persistence!

When you look at top achievers in any field, selling included, the temptation is to credit them with genius status, which makes it impossible for an ordinary mortal like yourself to match them!

But the truth is, more often than not, their current ability to perform is the result of dogged persistence – methodical testing and tinkering, discarding what doesn’t work, identifying what does!

Not gifted genius!

And that my friends YOU can replicate!

SIX words that WILL change your life!

Duane Cunningham — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 04:21:30 +0000

Patience grasshopper – I’m going to get to the 6 words, and

for good measure I’ll repeat it about 6 times in this post.

But first, let me tell you how this came about…

You know, one of the greatest frustrations out there for

someone who is trying to build wealth is knowing what to do,

knowing that they have to do something, and yet not doing

all that much.

I know this sinking-feeling all too well.

It’s a feeling that I revisited for 18 years in my early

adult life when I was just getting started in life.

Only to simply fall back into inaction, procrastination,

denial and major frustration.

Hey, I was motivated, I wanted more out of life. Ever

since I read my first ever book on success by David

Schwartz. The Magic of Thinking Big. I knew that my life

could and should be different.

It inspired me and motivated me… But yet, nothing changed.

…More frustration.

Nothing changed until I attended a seminar. Yes, I was a

seminar junkie – I admit it.

I was looking for answers. If nothing else, going to seminar

felt good, for a little while anyway.

But my frustration was brewing…

At that particular event, I asked one of the wealth

educators what his secret was for success… You know when

the presenter finishes and everyone gathers around them?

I wasn’t the only one around him at the time, so he launched

into a mini-seminar that he delivered to about 20-odd people

crowded around him.

He directed it to all of us, but it was as if he was talking

to me.

He said, “You’ll never really change or take massive action

until you simply do this…”

I was excited. Could this be the answer that I was looking

for – one simple solution, that’s all I wanted. Not a

simple, not a 7-step plan, just tell me the one thing.

Surely it’s not too much to ask.

He gave us all a piece of paper, asked us to draw a square

box in the middle of it and then asked us again, “…without

the need to share it with anybody, I want you to put a

number in that box.”

“And that number is your net worth.”

Some of the group wanted clarification. He went on and said,

“Simply take away your liabilities against your assets -

what are you left with?”

I quickly pulled the piece of paper close to my chest as if

I was hiding something. The reality was it didn’t take me

long to come up with the answer and I was totally

embarrassed by the result.

Do you know what the answer was?

I had a negative net worth of about $75,000. So I put -$75k

in the box.

The mentor then asked us another question… “How do you

feel about the answer you put in there?”

…for me, I felt crap. My excitement to the 1-second

solution turned into even more frustration.

Here I was reading books, attending seminars, talking

positive and yet the reality was I had very little to show

for it.

The mentor said, “The only truth is the result.”

Those words rang through my ears for days, weeks and months

after that particular event.

“The only truth is the result.”

There I was, 36 years of age, married with kids and my net

worth was in the negative.

It was at that point that my life changed forever.

Of course a lot has changed for me since then, but for some

reason I remember that point and that time in my life, where

I stopped procrastinating and started taking massive action.

…you know I do that exercise from time to time, when I’m

on a plane or just lying on the couch watching sport. Pull

up a blank piece of paper, draw a box in the middle and put

in my net worth.

What about you?

Where are you at?

If you have to go through the frustration – good, if you have to get mad - even better.

If this post right now makes you feel a little bit

reflective and you get a little bit down on yourself…

We’re heading in the right direction.

Why?

Because if this works for you, then you’ll thank me big

time, won’t you?

So go on, your turn now… Do the exercise, no one is

around, no one is going to see the result – only you.

Look at it, if you’re happy with that… Good, things are

going just great.

If you’re not – get off your arse, you’re a procrastinator.

Admit it to yourself and start making plans and more

importantly, start taking action.

…Today!

Remember one thing…

“The only truth is the result.”

This will go a long way to help you build momentum in your

life right now and become like me – a reformed

procrastinator living a life by design rather than somebody

else’s making.

If you underestimate this exercise, then you have a lot

to learn about human psychology. You can only effectively

change by using emotional triggers and tactics. I know this

doesn’t make sense logically, but neither is being broke in

a country that has got opportunity after opportunity

presenting themselves.

One more time for good measure!

“The only truth is the result.”

Are Women more picky about one-night stands?

Duane Cunningham — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:11:10 +0000

Women are far more choosy about casual sex than men, who don’t specially care whether a woman is moderately or exceptionally attractive as long as she hops into bed, new research says.

But German men are pickier than Americans and Italians – in that order – about who they spend a night in bed with, according to psychological research from Britain’s Brunel University published in the journal Human Nature.

In the study, Achim Schutzwohl and his colleagues asked more than 400 male and 400 female students in the US, Germany and Italy to judge the role played by physical attractiveness in their willingness to go out with someone, go to their flat, or go to bed with them.

The imaginary members of the opposite sex asking for favours were ranked either ‘slightly unattractive’, ‘moderately attractive’ or ‘exceptionally attractive’.

‘Looks affected men and women differently,’ the research team said.

For all three offers, men were more likely to accept when the woman was moderately or exceptionally attractive, but it made no difference whether she was little or very appealing.

Women on the other hand were more likely to go to a man’s flat or agree to go to bed if he was exceptionally attractive.

‘While men are not entirely insensitive to their requestor’s attractiveness, women have higher standards,’ the authors concluded.

I’d Rather Be Dumb And Persistent Than Smart And Impatient

Duane Cunningham — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:59:04 +0000

A friend of mine tells a story about a dumb frog that fell into a big barrel half full of cream.

He was close to drowning, and all of the other frogs circled the top of the barrel and laughed and jeered at him.

But this frog was SO dumb he thought they were cheering him on, so he paddled faster and faster and faster until he churned the cream into butter, and then he was able to hop out of the barrell!

It’s possible to be too smart, to know so much that you know all the reasons why it won’t, can’t, and shouldn’t work.

While you are sitting around stymied by all those problems, some dumb frog down the road is doing it!!

Now, with all my experience, I have to continually fight the disadvantage of being “too smart”.

Yes, it can be a disadvantage!

You can become too close-minded to new ideas or re-testing old ones under new conditions!

The next time you run into one of those know-it-all “experts” who give you all the reasons you can’t succeed, walk away!

Who are they – who am I for that matter – to tell you what YOU can’t do?

There was a guy playing international cricket with one arm!

I wonder how many people tried “for his own good” to convince him to forget about cricket?

The experts in the amusement park business laughed Walt Disney out of the meeting room!

Among other things they told him the idea of having just one entrance and exit for a big park was the dumbest idea of the century!

I could fill a book with such stories!

Unfortunately, salespeople new to a particular selling environment are often set upon by the grizzled veterans – the resident experts in everything thats been tried and everything that won’t work.

Often, their beliefs and biases haven’t been tested in years and are erroneous!

There’s a lot to be said for finding out some things for yourself!!

The Three Secrets Of Reward

Duane Cunningham — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:49:01 +0000

These three things:

Autonomy

Complexity

and Connection between Effort and Reward.

Are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying!

It is not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five.

It’s whether our work fulfills us!

If I offered you a choice between being an architect for $75,000 a year and working in a tollbooth everyday for the rest of your life for $100,000 a year, which would you take?

I’m guessing the former, because there is complexity, autonomy, and a relationship between effort and reward doing creative work, and thats worth more to most of us than money!

Work that fulfills those three criteria is “meaningful”

Being a teacher is meaningful.

Being a physician is meaningful.

So is being and entrepreneur.

When you come home after seeing your project come to life, you dance a jig!

You haven’t sold anything yet, you may still be penniless and desperate, and know that to make something of your idea is going to require years of backbreaking labor!

But your ecstatic!

Because the prospect of those endless years of hard labor doesn’t seem like a burden to you!

Just as Bill Gates had the same feeling when he sat down in front of his first keyboard!

And the Beatles didn’t recoil in horror when they were told they had to play eight hours a night, seven days a week.

They jumped at the chance!

Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning!

If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires!

The Attributes Required To Master Success

Duane Cunningham — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 04:03:54 +0000

The strategies are the easy bit!

But the difference that makes the difference is your structure!

If you are living in a little goldfish bowl then you’re just not going to grow that big!

You’re not going to swim in the ocean of wealth and success until you can jump out of the bowl and expand your structure!

Albert Einstein talked about the boundary conditions of our thinking.

Basically, what he was saying is that we are not limited by life – what is possible or impossible is not set by the universe!

But is set by our own individual perception.

We are limited by the boundaries we create!

What we believe is possible becomes the walls of the box we live inside.

That box is your structure and most people rarely venture outside unless they make a concerted effort to do so!

Do you have a ‘scumbag voice’?

If you don’t know, I’ll save you some time – you do!

We all have two voices – one that is positive and encouraging and the other is what I call the ‘scumbag voice’.

This is the little voice that eats away at your self-confidence and it is your inner critic.

It’s the one that sniggers when you tell yourself your going to be filthy stinking rich!

It’s the one that says, “Not you, scumbag! Everyone else will be rich except you!”

Don’t be too concerned about this voice.

Everyone has one.

It’s just a matter of learning how to turn the volume down or preferably hit the mute button!

Without going into the technicalities of how this voice is developed, suffice to say it is the product of learning and most adults have this voice.

If you don’t want your children to suffer from it, make a point of encouraging them more than criticizing them!

Point out the good attributes in people and make a fuss of their successes rather than picking on their faults.

Encourage people to learn from their mistakes and separate the mistake or outcome from them as a human being!

Just because someone fails an exam doesn’t make them a failure.

As we learn we fail!

That’s hoe we learn and yet as an adult failure is no longer acceptable so we beat ourselves up for not getting it right and the ‘scumbag voice’ has a field day!

Newsflash:

If You Want To Be Filthy Stinking Rich And Successful, YOU Better get Used to Failing!!

I think my favorite ‘against all odds’ story is that of Walt Disney, who was turned down by 321 banks before someone finally said yes to his dream – Disneyland!

Remember your scumbag voice only has the power to limit your dreams and steal your confidence if you let it!

Don’t listen!

That’s the key! Don’t listen!

Most people think that’s too simple bit it is usually the simple things in life that make the biggest difference!